"The tango. You have to have it in your arsenal, people. First you need to understand that it is all about sex. When you dance tango with someone you're seducing them. Partner up. We'll start with the abrazo, the embrace." Jesse shot a little, quirky smile at Rachel and was slowly making his way to her, but something stopped them both from walking towards each other. "No, not you, Schwimmer, keep practicing those jazz hands back in the corner." The teacher made her way to Jesse and gave a death glare to the girl who was on purpose standing next to him. "How about, St. James, you dance with me." Cassie placed a hand on Jesse's bicep and Rachel felt even more uncomfortable somehow.
"But Ms. July...I'm sorry, if I'm ever going to play Evita, I'm going to have to learn how to tango." Rachel addressed her teacher slowly, hoping to get in exchange a rational answer.
"You don't have enough sex appeal to pull of the incredible tango. You're awkward, tentative in your body and you move like you're ashamed of it." Jesse offered a soothing smile that quickly turned into a lazy grimace before being pulled away by Ms. July. "Okay, arms up! Follow Jesse and me. Five, six, seven, eight."
Jesse's expression clearly made Rachel think that he agreed with their teacher. She didn't know what to think of it, and all she wanted was for the class to be over already.
"I'm sorry about that," he said catching up with her in the hallways again. "I just couldn't say no to her."
"It's alright," Jesse gave her a look, "really." She smiled assuring him of her statement. "I just think that…maybe she's right? What if I lack all of those things and I can't make it out there?"
"Rachel, you are going to make it, I know so because you work hard for the things you want and if you truly lack of something, that won't be a problem, I promise." She smiled thankfully at his words, he did have a way with them.
"Thank you, Jesse."
"You want to grab a coffee?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, I can't. Kurt and I are going apartment hunting." She said with a huge grin on her face.
"Kurt?" He asked confused. "He's here?" With all the time catching up with Kurt she had forgotten to tell Jesse.
"Yeah, he got here three days ago. He has been staying at some crappy motel and with the situation with my roommate..." Jesse chuckled, she had told him about the girl and the awkward situations when the random guy walked in and left, he had laughed his heart out. "Well, we decided to look for an apartment together."
"That's great, the only bad thing though, I'm not going to see you in the showers anymore." She smiled.
"So, the amazing Jesse St. James is going to stay in the dorms forever, huh?" She said walking down the stairs with him by her side.
"What are you talking about?" He asked teasingly.
"Right, how could I have forgotten? You're a trust-fund baby." She said mockingly and laughed.
"Yes, yes, laugh all you want, Berry. But that trust-fund is going to get me an apartment in Manhattan." He said with his usual cocky voice. She really got to be jealous of that, maybe being daddy's little boy had its perks.
"So you are moving." She said interested.
"Next week actually, Im just closing the deal." He said sighing. "I just want to get out of this dorms, my roommate is getting high all the time and keeps his socks by color, I mean, what kind of person does that?" She laughed and then put on her worried face.
"Oh-oh, sociopath."
"That's what I thought." He looked around casually and then spoke. "Rach, don't look now but I think there is a very pale boy following us." She frowned.
"Very funny, St. James." Kurt Hummel spoke up as he approached his best friend. "Come Rachel, we are late." Kurt said reaching for her hand. She gave Jesse a quick hug and a soft "goodbye" and let herself be pulled away by Kurt.
"What, you two are like, best friends now?" He said walking faster.
"Oh, don't be jealous Kurt, you are my only best friend." She said tying her arms around him and laughing.
"Well, I freaking better be."
"Oh! New York Domino's is so much better than Lima Domino's." Rachel said leaving her slice of pizza on top of the carton for a moment.
"It's the water." Kurt spoke looking around the big apartment. She pulled her knees to her chest and considered asking one more time, he could have heard of him in the last few hours, she thought.
"So, have you heard from Finn at all?" Her eyes were expecting and she felt so ashamed of being so childish about Finn, she wanted to be an independent woman who didn't need more than her drive and determination, but she was slowly getting to realize that she wasn't, she hadn't been for a long time now.
"Not since you asked me yesterday." He said smiling at her soothingly. "He's just giving you your space." He said slowly.
"I know." She sighed, the worst part was that she came to like that space and hate it so much at the same time.
"Want to feel nostalgic?" She smiled as a response. "Blaine said they're doing Britney Spears again in glee club. Mr. Shue must have ran out of ideas."
"Oh my god. It feels like so long time ago since we've been in the choir room" she grinned, all those moments and memories implanted in one single room. Rachel sometimes woke up in the morning believing that she was on her way to high school and that at the end of the day she would have the opportunity to be with her best friends in the world and sing, all blinded from the future that would tear them apart.
"We are living in the future, Rachel. Speaking of which, my plan." Kurt breathed long and she nodded.
"Okay, go."
"I'm going to re-audition for second semester at NYADA." He said excited. "In the mid time, I'm going to apply for a job in the only place I feel will truly appreciate my sense of style and sophistication. Vogue." He said adding seriousness to his voice. "I know it sounds crazy, but in a way I'm almost glad I didn't make it in my first try. You know, I've really learnt a lot about myself for the last couple of months." She wished she had had that time to take in all the things that had happened without notice in her life.
All Rachel had was a system, one where there'll be no time in her schedule to revise her life, only her dance moves and how long she could carry a note. Focus, Kurt said, she could use some of that, the focus she lacked at some classes and it was all the blame of that engagement ring that was no longer on her finger. She was relieved, she admitted to herself finally. She couldn't imagine being married right now, in this point on her life, in her new life. It made her feel like all the wrong choices were turning into luggage that she would have to carry with her forever.
"My dance teacher just won't let up on me. The other day she told me I wasn't sexy enough." She had never seen herself as 'sexy' but she didn't feel she was that bad, bad enough for ending up without a partner to dance tango with.
"Maybe you shouldn't wear a bra to the next class." He joked.
"And take all the attention away from the Ms. Cassie July? She'd flip, I can't stand her." She wished she didn't have to take that class, all there was were insults and physical injuries.
"She wants sexy, give her sexy."
Jesse was running late for dance class, he had set his alarm wrong and now he was rushing and pushing people so he could make it to class on time. The last thing he wanted was to make Cassie angry, no, nobody wants that. He had filled her star-student position for his class and he wasn't planning on letting that down. He had to admit that the classes at NYADA were a bitch. Mostly the dance ones, fortunately for him he had been trained for four years to move over dehydration and exhaustion, but there had been two years since then and it was definitely not the same. His body still managed to do all the amazing choreographies and the exercises he had been taught in Vocal Adrenaline, which was an extra advantage for him.
When he got to the class, the double doors were wide open, the lights were off and smoke was flouting out of the room. This school was just getting weirder and weirder by the day.
He walked in and 'Ops I did it again' was at the middle of the song. There were a lot of people moving tables and flashlights and then he saw her like he had never seen her before. She was wearing some kind of...if it was not lingerie, it had to be a very slutty dance suit. He would have loved to see any other girl dance and dress like that, but not Rachel. All the things that once led back to her had been sweet and innocent. This girl was not Rachel Berry.
He listened to Rachel's words carefully as everybody around Cassie and Rachel were. He was just leaning on the corner next to the door.
One thing was to step up for yourself, but actually going there and call one of the most severe teachers he had had the pleasure, yes, pleasure to meet, a YouTube joke. Well, that was something you didn't do.
The room felt so awkward when Rachel left and the teacher dismissed everyone else, saying she didn't want to work until all the staging smoke was gone. He was relieved that he could go after Rachel, Jesse reached out to her and took his jacket from his bag, placing it on Rachel.
"Hello, sexy." He said with a smirk and she took his jacket off her shoulders letting yet again her body be exhibited for all the ones that wanted a look. "Rach, come on, aren't you cold?" He said placing his jacket on her again, she didn't shrugged it off this time and he felt so relieved. "What was that all about?" He asked rounding her shoulders with his arm.
"She said I wasn't sexy enough, I wanted to prove her wrong." She spoke angry and sad as she sat down on a couch at the lobby, wrapping herself in Jesse's jacket, she really was cold. He snorted.
"Oh, Rachel Berry, you stubborn pain in the ass." He said smiling at her. "You think that if you weren't 'sexy enough'." He said quoting with his fingers. "I would have switched schools all those years ago?" She frowned confused.
"What?"
"You said you didn't want to do it because it would have been like betraying the team so..." She opened her eyes, apparently outraged, but she was anything but.
"I cannot believe you," she said dramatically and pushing him away. "All men are the same." She stepped up from the couch indignantly and walked away. He chuckled and followed her right suit.
"Come here drama-queen." He said reaching for her arm and pulling her closer. "I was eighteen and stupid."
"Yes, I think we can all agree on that." He rolled his eyes, laughing. She shrugged his hand away once more and walked away again. "If you are not going to talk to me ever again, can I at least have my jacket back?" He said teasing and walking towards her.
"No." She yelled before waking out the doors of NYADA and he sighed. Then he remembered how Rachel was dressed, he wasn't about to let her walk like that in the streets alone so he followed again.
"Hey Rach!" He practically ran towards her and when he reached her, Jesse put an arm around her and squeezed her almost possessively, shooting death glares to whomever dared to look at Rachel more than once.
"What are you doing?" She said laughing.
"I'm walking you home."
They arrived to the apartment softly joking to each other. He had been real frightened because of the area they lived in. And concerned because of Rachel's clothing choice for overproduced dance numbers. He couldn't quite actually complain or even mock that. You searched Jesse St. James on the Internet and all you'd get was that; overproduced dance numbers and all of them built around him and his voice.
Rachel opened the door that was unlocked and seemed pretty easy to open, he didn't mention it. The apartment was really big, it wasn't furnished yet, it had several plastic bags all around and a couple of opened suitcases here and there but between all that he could see something great. He knew Kurt would be the one on charge of styling it up and so he had no doubt that in a couple of days this place could really look like home for both Rachel and Kurt.
"This place is huge." He pointed out, still with his arm around Rachel.
"Yeah, we could either get this or shoebox in Manhattan." He nodded and kept looking around while Rachel freed herself from his arm and walked towards a pink suitcase and opened it looking for something.
His eyes finally landed in a wall and he leaned his head right before snorting lightly. 'Finn' and two big hearts surrounding the name all painted in white, green and yellow. He thought white would suit the space. Either way something sunk in when he imagined Rachel painting it, and he pursed his lips. Finally Rachel spotted him looking at the wall and she felt awkward and embarrassed. She had absolutely forgotten about that. She didn't want Jesse to see it, she didn't want anyone to see it. Her one big weakness at the time written in the wall for everyone to see.
Rachel remembered her talk with Kurt the night she painted that on her wall.
"What do you think? Am I being too obvious?" she questioned as he finished enveloping the name with a heart
"He hasn't call you because he loves you." She knew that phrase had its logical truth but, when replaying it in her brain it made absolutely no sense. "Your freedom is a gift he's given you, accept it."
It wasn't as easy as Kurt had made it sound. Rachel had never been one to appreciate loneliness, and her freedom came with it.
"Has he called yet?" He asked freeing his eyes from the amazingly torturous sight. She shook her head and grimaced. She was holding clothes in her hand and she made her way to the bathroom so she could change.
She looked at herself in the already hanged mirror, she looked very flashy, she could admit that, and the matter was cleared as in the why Jesse wanted to walk her home. She smiled at that, he cared about her, he still did after all of the crap they had gone through; they had both hurt each other in their personal way and in spite of that he truly cared, as in like a real friend, she convinced herself.
Rachel wiped off a little of her makeup and changed the dark dance attire for her blue skirt and a gray sweater and she exchanged her gold necklace for the 'Finn' one as if it was a protection amulet against her temptations. She sighed deeply and took one last glance at her reflection in the mirror before heading out the door.
Jesse was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the wooden columns with his eyes closed and humming with his headphones on. She hadn't realized she had taken that long to get changed. She made a warning noise closing the bathroom door and he opened his eyes directing his gaze towards her. She sat down next to him. Jesse smiled at her after taking a look at what she was wearing, placing quiet attention to her necklace and frowning before taking his earphones off.
"So, you have Finn on your wall and on your chest, it makes me feel kind of jealous for the lucky bastard." He said teasingly, smirking as she rolled her eyes at him.
"Kurt says he hasn't call me because he loves me." She said a bit sarcastically. Obviously, Kurt hadn't done a great job at convincing her of it.
"Well, if I may, that makes no sense." She looked at her shoes for a while, taking great interest on the way they looked from her perspective.
"I know, and apparently freedom is what I'm getting as a treat for not hearing from him for three months."
The last thing she wanted was to sound pitying and yet she was, to her ears. She wasn't throwing herself to the floor just to be raised, she was truly just confused, and everyone knew she wasn't the best at this situations.
"You shouldn't be going through this." He said reaching out for her hand and his bittersweet gaze met hers for a moment, he sighed before looking away. "But you are." He spoke toying with her fingers, the action relaxed him and maybe her as well. He didn't want to fall into bad habits again; Hudson would always win the battle when it came to Rachel, and he knew this. He had moved on and, still, when he looked directly into Rachel's eyes it felt as if he hadn't. It was ridiculous.